Knowledge creation
Growing our evidence base
Our collaborative research projects support our core purpose to build stronger evidence for stronger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.
Together with our partners, we’re growing our knowledge base to drive positive outcomes in policy, practice and community.
Metasynthesis
In partnership with CAGES Foundation and Dr Paul Gray from the University of Technology Sydney, QATSICPP has established a research project to bring together multiple streams of practice to create a new discipline to enable effective strategies and systems to support our work. Synthesizing the knowledge between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child and Family Support, Rights Based approaches and the Trauma and Healing literature we will formulate an integrated evidence base.
A meta synthesis will bring together these knowledge systems and will enable us to identify the common elements that are required for lasting change. Ultimately our aim is to create the right evidence base for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Family Support, changing the paradigm from a focus on child protection alone.
Building better evidence and findings
Building better evidence and findings Led by a group of eminent Chief Investigators we will:
- Create a strong evidence base that can be utilised to support changing the lives of the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children – improving their wellbeing and breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma
- Enable QATSICPP to create a strategic research agenda, with the ability to continue to build on the preliminary findings over time
- Enable practice wisdom to be integrated with peer reviewed publications and multi-disciplinary schools of thought creating the conditions for excellence and support practitioners in continuing to deliver change based on evidence
- Provide the foundations of an evaluation framework that can be applied within all ongoing evaluation commissioned to continue grow the evidence base
ANROWS Project
Our First Nations children unfortunately experience high rates of domestic and family violence and are overrepresented in child protection systems in Australia. The long history of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that commenced with colonisation, the effects of which are still being felt today, significantly contributes to these outcomes. Policies intended to respond to these harms, improve wellbeing, and enhance safety, instead continue to cause harm, rarely providing culturally safe, well-resourced and trauma informed solutions.
This is the second of two reports from the project, Service system responses and culturally designed practice frameworks to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children exposed to domestic and family violence. The project used culturally safe, participatory action research methods with First Nations community members in eight regional and remote locations across Queensland to generate new knowledge about what works for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who have both experienced domestic and family violence and had contact with the child protection system. The first report from this project, New ways for our families explored existing literature and presented the findings from the first action research cycles. The final report, You can’t pour from an empty cup presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations from the final rounds of action research.
Significantly, our community researchers found that experiencing domestic and family violence negatively impacted childhoods, behaviours and the ability to form healthy relationships as adults. Harms were carried forward into adulthood as these children and young people became parents and moved through systems. As a result many experienced child protection responses that used oppressive and controlling techniques and this increased distress. Research participants identified that there was a lack of focus on providing healing and support services for children and young people who experienced DFV and that service providers were often ill equipped to respond effectively to trauma.
This research provides an understanding of how services and systems including health and education can better hear from and respond to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who experience domestic and family violence. While conducting the research, and as a result of the initial findings which revealed the depth of cultural knowledge and community led solutions, the research team made the decision to also develop a culturally strong practice framework to guide policymakers and practitioners. The framework, Healing our children and young people: A framework to address the impacts of domestic and family violence is available on the knowledge sharing section of this website.
Building better evidence and outcomes
Key findings will underpin the development of a best practice framework and models for prevention and early intervention practices to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who have experienced DFV.
Delegated Authority Action Research
This three-part action research project aims to engage in reflection and gain a deeper understanding of what works the implementation of Delegated Authority in Queensland. Delegated authority is the delegation of function and powers from Chief Executive (Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs (DCYJMCA)) to the Chief Executive Officer of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander entity in relation to an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early adopter organisations alongside Departmental staff will contribute to developing reflection questions and participate in cycles of action research that will be documented throughout the process. To ensure the delegation authority’s success, the project will engage the state-wide coordinating group. The voices of families and children and young people will also be sought through appropriate processes. Professor Daryl Higgins from the Institute of Child Protection Studies act as critical friend to aid additional thought leadership and the knowledge, identification and development of reflection questions. Reports will be produced to document insights and learnings.
Building better evidence and outcomes
The key evaluation questions will assist organisations to develop their own monitoring and evaluation framework including critical outcomes development of tools and frameworks to support implementation and replication of the Delegated Authority at local and state-wide levels.
Delegated Authority Evaluation
The purpose of the delegated authority (DA) evaluation is to enable a framework that embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and provides for continuous learning.
Aim
The evaluation aims to implement a robust monitoring evaluation and learning framework to measure the impact and outcomes of this work and guide ongoing implementation. This includes building a Theory of Change (Story of Change) to ensure effective measures are identified that are relevant, reliable, and realistic.
DA Evaluation Objectives
- Develop a Story of Change to articulate a shared understanding of the desired outcomes, and ensure effective measures are identified that are relevant, reliable, and realistic.
- Enable a framework that embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and provides for continuous learning
- Understanding the experiences of stakeholders
- Tracking outcomes
- Action learning processes are built into the DA implementation cycles to support continuous learning and to address emerging issues.
Our Story of Change for Delegated Authority
Our Story of Change is the theory of change for delegated authority developed by Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak (QATSICPP). The SoC was developed in partnership with the then Department of Child Safety, Seniors, and Disability Services (now the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services & Child Safety) and the two early adopter sites, Refocus and Central Queensland Indigenous Development (CQID).
A Theory of Change is an explicit process of thinking through and documenting how a programme is supposed to work, why it will work, who it will benefit (and in what way), and the conditions required for success. We use the term “story of change” to acknowledge the importance of Storylines for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and to recognise the importance of embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing within our work.
Building better evidence and outcomes
Our Story of Change for delegated authority is grounded in the importance of voice and choice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities, and emphasises the importance of genuine partnership and collective decision making. Our Story of Change highlights how we can bring to life the changes we are seeking for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities across Queensland, and ensures that we identify effective outcome measures that are relevant, reliable and realistic.
Delegated Authority Learning and Adaption Framework
Drawing on Our Story of Change, The Delegated Authority Learning and Adaption Framework (L&A Framework) was developed by Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak in partnership with the then Department of Child Safety, Seniors, and Disability Services (now the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services & Child Safety) and the QATSICPP membership. The Framework was designed to enable us to learn and gather evidence for measuring our progress and to help us understand the outcomes of this new way of working under delegated authority.
We have chosen the term “Learning and Adaption” Framework to reflect the iterative process of learning from findings, which may lead to adjustments in methodological design. Additionally, the Learning and Adaption Framework aims to tell the story of DA in a way that is consistent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of exploring outcomes for children, families and communities, and reporting that can inform rather than determine policy design and implementation.
The objective of the L&A Framework is to enable a framework that embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and provides for continuous learning.
Formal evaluation processes are due to commence in early 2025.
Building better evidence and outcomes
Our Learning and Adaption Framework will mean we can:
- understand what works and how change occurs at both systemic and practice levels,
- create opportunities to reflect on both the process and the impact of the work throughout implementation,
- understand the outcomes of this new way of working including hearing from children and families about their experiences,
- track our implementation progress and identify barriers and enablers to learn continuously and improve our practice,
- enable accountability through publishing reports and insights.
Building better evidence and outcomes
DA Consultations 2023:
- Action Research cycle in March 2023
- Sector Forum May 2023
- Community of Practice hosted by the then Department of Child Safety, Seniors, and Disability Services Oct 2023
- Community of Practice hosted by QATSICPP Nov 2023
Scoping Study
This scoping review is to establish a metasynthesis of fields of evidence which would assist us in establishing a robust Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection evidence base for the Centre of Excellence. The purpose of a metasynthesis is to identify the current evidence base for policy, program and practice in promoting the safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and support of their families and communities; and inform priorities for ongoing research.
Building better evidence and outcomes
The scoping review is to examine the evidence available, across contributing knowledge bases including rights-based approaches, trauma and healing and child protection; identify knowledge gaps; and inform the perimeters and scope of a metasynthesis.
Evaluation Framework
The QATSICPP Evaluation Framework (the Framework) was developed in consultation with Professor Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh from Griffith University, QATSICPP’s internal reference group, and our Members, to help guide the way for evaluations to be grounded in culture and give voice to those most impacted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations (ATSICCO) programs and services. The framework is designed to be used by QATSICPP and our Members (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations) to guide culturally safe and respectful evaluation commissioning and planning that benefits Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.
The framework includes:
- Principles: the core values that underpin culturally grounded and safe evaluation. These principles guide evaluation planning and are central to giving effect to the evaluation standards.
- Evaluation Standards: four broad standards that operationalize the principles.
Our evaluation principles are aligned with our obligations as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Community Controlled Organisations including: - Cultural authority
- Self-determination through decision making authority
- Cultural identity
- Truth Telling
- Two-way learning
- Learning focussed
- Holistic approach
Building better evidence and outcomes
Our Evaluation standards are:
- We hear and respond to the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead evaluation
- Evaluation methodologies are safe and inclusive for all and provide an opportunity for healing
- Outcomes of evaluation are explained and are transparent and accountable
It is our hope that this Evaluation Framework will be a resource to help guide the way for evaluations to be grounded in culture and give voice to those most impacted by our programs and services – our children, families and communities.